Joy in the Garden!

Joy in the Garden

Running around looking for Joy, and all I find is more work to be done.  Slow down and soak in the serenity, the peace, the tranquility (this is what it is like to totally leave it at the feet of Jesus)!  This is REAL Joy!

I changed out my format for today.  I know the title is "revealing the heart;" but we can also find the heart of God in the garden!  Not only his heart, but his hand in every beautiful thing that surrounds us.  Breathing in the fragrance of the Holy Spirit!  

I was reading Ann Voskamp's blog today and the words resonate with my soul.  She was talking about procrastination.  With me, I often focus on the things I love to do; but somehow those things that weigh on the soul creep in and they require attention, you know, like cleaning the house, or washing the clothes, maybe grocery shopping, the list is long and sometimes tedious!  Even your passions and talents can become tiresome! Those things we would rather put off until later, but they are screaming, "it needs to be done now!"  Here is a good one, this really hits close to home; I struggle with exercise!  Who really wants to exercise?  If we don't keep moving, eventually our muscles stop working and well deterioration sets in. 

How do we stop this procrastination? How do we get pass those feeling of "not now Lord, maybe tomorrow?"  And tomorrow never comes?

In Hebrews 12:1

Words of wisdom

Jesus gave us the perfect way to bypass procrastination - "let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross."

He tells us to keep our eye on the goal!  Eternal life, Heaven, Paradise.  He knew the truth and because he did, he was able to endure!  While here on earth, we can witness the  beauty of God's hand, such as this garden above!  Won't Heaven be so much more glorious!  

Our feelings are often the root of our sin nature and it is a weight we must lay aside.  So every time you get the feeling of "not feeling like it" think about Joy eternal with a Saviour that really loves us!  It is our encouragement, our hope and our Joy to continue in the battle of life! 

On Ann's site she gave a list of things that are good to think about in our life, or at least pray about it - start "Working out" that salvation with faith to give a "jump start," hope as we walk and work it out (exercise), and joy, real JOY for the journey!

The nice thing to know is we have Jesus by our side, if we become faint, he says come unto me you who are weak and heavy laden, and I will give you rest!  We are running the race, but the important part to know is we are NOT running it alone!  No need to procrastinate....Jesus is calling you today! We all have to "run the race," why run it alone?

the comments below are by Ann Voskamp:  Check out her website, it is AWESOME! http://www.aholyexperience.com/

Think about this strange pattern that occurs over and over in just about every area of life:

• Healthy, nutritious food often requires discipline to prepare and eat while junk food is convenient, tasty, and addictive.
• Keeping the body healthy and strong requires frequent deliberate discomfort while it only takes moderate indulgence to go to pot.
• You have to make yourself pick up that nourishing but intellectually challenging book while flipping on the TV or popping in a DVD is as easy as coasting downhill.
• You frequently have to force yourself to get to devotions and prayer while sleeping in or cleaning that clutter or checking Facebook just has a gravitational pull.
• Learning to skillfully play beautiful music requires thousands of hours of tedious practice.
• Excelling in a sport requires monotonous drills ad nauseum.
• Learning to write well requires writing, writing, writing and rewriting, rewriting, rewriting. And usually voluminous reading.
• It takes years and years of schooling just to make certain vocational opportunities possible.

You get the idea.

The pattern in everything is this: the greater joys are obtained through struggle and difficulty and pain—things you must force yourself to do when you don’t feel like it—while brief, unsatisfying, and often destructive joys are as inviting as couch cushions.